10.16.2015

Of course Donald Trump has a "Where are you from?" moment.

"I was born in Texas, raised in Colorado."

It was only a matter of time. Kind of surprised this didn't happen sooner. This week, Donald Trump had himself a "Where are you from?" moment with an Asian American audience member while on the campaign trail.

On Monday, the Republican presidential candidate took a question from Joseph Choe, a Harvard student, at the No Labels Problem Solver Convention in New Hampshire. As Choe started to ask a question about South Korea, Trump interrupted to ask "Are you from South Korea?"

"I'm not," Choe replied. "I was born in Texas, raised in Colorado."

Choe, a 20-year-old economics major whose parents were born in Korea, was calling out Trump's past comments on defense spending on the Korean peninsula. Before Trump cut him off, Choe told the candidate, "No matter where I'm from, I like to get my facts straight." Nice try, bro. Trump doesn't have time for facts!

"I don't care who you are, whether you're the prime minister or Donald Trump, if you say something factually wrong or do something factually wrong, I'll call you out on it," Choe told NPR. "[Trump] makes all these weird accusations, whether it's toward Mexicans or women, or South Koreans; I just wanted to call him out on that."

So he asked a question about Korea, you say. What's wrong with asking the questioner about his nationality? Fuck that. I'm pretty sure that a white person's question about defense or foreign policy would not be met with a question about his or her national origin. This is tiresome, well-worn territory for Asian Americans. Where we're "really from" will always be in question, and not just from the likes of Donald Trump.